Honey Harvesting with Novella Carpenter and BioFuel Oasis

Novella Carpenter has to be our most famous East Bay urban farmer. No one has written as engaging, entertaining and honest tale of an enterprising young inner-city homesteader as Novella has with her 2009 memoir, Farm City.

But Novella has done more than raise pigs and rabbits in Oakland; she is also an early member of the BioFuel Oasis collective, an Berkeley worker-owned Biodiesel Station and Urban Farm Supply Store located on Sacramento at Ashby. Watch for her new book, The Essential Urban Farmer, coming out at the end of the year.

We’re super excited that both Novella and BioFuel Oasis will be at East Bay Mini Maker Faire on October 16th. Novella will be doing honey extraction workshop on our new Homesteader Stage, demoing a manual honey extractor and spinning out a few gallons of honey from her home hive.

BioFuel Oasis will be there to share all their offerings, including the fuel they sell that is made locally (Mendocino County) from recycled cooking oil, and supplies for your urban homestead (e.g. organic chicken feed, beekeeping supplies, cheesemaking kits, books and tools). They also offer tools on loan—a honey extractor (same one Novella is using!) and have a tremendous lineup of great classes and workshops.

Stay tuned for the full schedule for our Homesteader Stage; we’ve got great demos and workshops from home coffee roasting to wildcrafting to bread making to a flat tire fix clinic and race (!). Check back here soon—but also follow our Facebook and Twitter feeds for regular updates.